Epic Travels: The Red Iguana (Salt Lake City, UT)

So summer is starting, which means conference season for my work. This means I get to travel a bit and eat food at exotic locales. This week I had the pleasure of heading to Salt Lake City, Utah. That’s right – when I think exotic, I think Salt Lake City, home of the LDS (Mormon Church), trollies, hardworking pioneers, and lots and lots of white people. Well, one thing we know about white people – they love their mexican food.

Killer Mexican? Absolutely.

This is evident at Salt Lake City’s Red Iguanarestaurant, a hip, continuously packed mexican joint across the highway from downtown Salt Lake. After being seated, we were brought delicious, tangy salsa, home-made chips, and tasty margaritas made from your choice of around 8 different tequilas (all under $6.50). The Red Iguana seems to be known for their creative and playful interpretation of mexican Mole sauces (pronouncedMOH-lay), which they make fromdriedandfreshchiles,nuts,spices,herbs, fruits, and vegetables. Upon opening the menu, I was seduced by this little number:

Mother of God. Word? Serious? An almond mole? While I’ve never actually been brought to the point of licking a plate at a restaurant, I dare say that I came close on this particular occasion. Perhaps the best (and most lacking) description that I can come up with right now (its 5:30 AM after a red-eye flight) is this: almond mole sauce tastes to be the mexican equivalent of a hearty, smoother, vodka pasta sauce. Er, except without the cream. And the tomato. And it has almonds in it.

The menu presents a ridiculous number of other delicious possibilities, including the more traditional (or at least more common) Mole Negro, a mole composed of driedchilemulato,negropasilla,Mexicanchocolate,raisins,peanuts, walnuts&bananas that can be tossed with chickenorturkey,sprinkledwithablendofquesorancheroandcotija, and thentoppedpickledredonions. If you’re into chocolate-based Mole, this one will surely knock your fucking socks off. If you’re into that kind of thing.